Investors in the company include SoftBank Group, Amazon and Nvidia Corp.

Perplexity AI Inc., an artificial intelligence company that is developing a search product aimed at competing with Google, is in preliminary talks to raise money from investors worth about $9 billion, according to a person familiar with the company. case.

The company is looking to raise more than $500 million in this funding round, according to the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.

The new valuation, which includes the amount the company was going to raise, could triple its previous valuation of $3 billion from a funding round earlier this year. However, discussions are in their early stages and details could change, or negotiations could break down. The company declined to comment.

Perplexity’s valuation has soared in recent months, reflecting intense interest among venture capitalists in backing AI companies. As of April this year, the startup was valued at just $1 billion. Its peers and competitors have also raised significant sums, including OpenAI, which completed $6.6 billion in funding at a valuation of $157 billion earlier this month.

Perplexity’s latest funding negotiations came to fruition after investors contacted the company, the person said, and not because the startup decided to raise new money.

Perplexity offers several services in addition to paid and free versions of its search tool. The company recently launched a product that allows organizations to search internal files via the Internet and introduced new features for finance-related searches, including stock prices and company earnings data.

The company has also launched a series of revenue-sharing partnerships with major publishers, although it has been accused of plagiarism by some media outlets.

Investors in the company include SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund 2, Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos and Nvidia Corp.

The Wall Street Journal had already reported on the negotiations.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)